Dodgy Business: Back to the past

Thirty years ago, the FIA and the Formula 1 teams were at loggerheads over rules and power. Three decades later, not much has changed...

So far, this is all going exactly as one team principal told me it would. Max Mosley has found a means of convincing the FIA that the big bad car manufacturers are attacking the FIA's authority and that they need him to fight their cause, despite the fact that he'd much rather stand down.

Always, in these matters, it's about governance and money, and most of the time the agendas are inter-linked. And always there are three power bases – the teams, the FIA and the commercial rights holder. Ferrari has traditionally held a position of greater influence than a single team because of its perceived pull and ability to influence the behaviour of the others.